Sydney Supple has always played with a chip on her shoulder. The junior softball player at Oshkosh High School had always heard about the challenges that athletes, especially seasonal sport athletes, face to get recognized in small, Midwest towns like Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Supple is entering her third season on the Varsity softball team. Her scholarship to Northwestern University is proof that if you work hard enough, anything is possible.

“Being from a city and a state that really can only play four months out of the year, I had people growing up that didn’t really believe that I could make it, that I could achieve my dream,” said Supple, “I feel like I was a person that showed you can make it.”

Supple has certainly made a name for herself on the field. She is currently the third ranked high school prospect nationally and committed to Northwestern University when she was just 13 years old.

In her freshman season, she was named first-team all-state and led her team to its highest finish in school history, and into the state playoffs for the first time in 38 years.

She followed that up with an equally impressive sophomore season. She again was named first-team all-state and once again led her team to the state championship, where they lost in a heartbreaker. For all her accomplishments, she was awarded the Gatorade Player of the Year.

As a result of her Gatorade Player of the Year Award, Supple was given a $1,000 grant to be given to a local sports organization as part of Gatorade’s Pay it Forward Program. Supple chose the Oshkosh Fastclub as her organization. It was where she grew up playing softball and wanted to give back to them.

“It’s that organization that I really credit for my love of the game,” said Supple, “some of my best memories and some of my greatest friendships happened with them.”

The money from the grant will go towards building new softball facilities in Oshkosh. The hope is that all three Oshkosh high school teams, club teams and neighborhood youth tournaments will use the fields. They hope that it will break ground soon.

“The goal is to raise enough money so that we can break ground on the field over the summer, and have it done by the start of next season.” Said Supple.

By using this money to build a new softball field, Supple wants other kids to have even better opportunities to follow their dreams than she did.

In addition to using the grant to build the new softball field in Oshkosh, Supple is also raising money by other means.

She started a campaign called “Supple’s Strikeouts for Softball.” People can donate between 25 cents to one dollar for every strikeout she has during the season. Last season, she recorded 170 strikeouts, and in her freshman season recorded 176.

“It was kind of a fun way people can follow our team this year,” said Supple, “We can donate to the field and it’s just another way to raise money. This community raised me and allowed me to get this dream [of playing division 1 softball]. I really want to inspire the younger generations and show them that they can go places. I want to be one of the people to show these girls that you can do this, you can be from a small town in Wisconsin and make it to division 1, and play in the Big Ten.”

Athletes are often recognized for the work they do on the field. The 2018 Wisconsin High School Sports Awards recognizes those accomplishments but also highlights positive impacts off the field with the I AM SPORT Award, presented by the Milwaukee Bucks.